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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

#228: Lyndon LaRouche

A.k.a. Lyn Marcus

Lyndon LaRouche is a legend. Perennially running for president, LaRouche manages to be a wingnut/moonbat on the radical left and the radical right at the same time. He has a severe messiah complex and runs his organization like a fundie cult, and is – fortunately – insane enough to be rather toothless.

So why should you vote for LaRouche (given that he – as he certainly will – runs for president again)? Among the issues LaRouche is firm on, and that no one else seems to deal with effectively are (more details here):- Using tactical nukes to build a canal across Africa to solve the world's water crisis.- Break the Satanist conspiracy between Henry Kissinger (and/or George Soros), the Queen of England, ADL, Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund that controls the world’s drug trade.- Avoiding the imminent global economic collapse (which has been immediately around the corner since the 60s, apparently). His suggestions on how to deal with it are rather diffuse.- Banish rock & roll (especially the Beatles), which is a tool used by British Intelligence to control American minds. In fact, according to LaRouche, British liberalism is the main threat to the world at present, and they are secretly working to take over the world and bring it back to the dark ages (other conspiracy theories are dismissed as British propaganda).- Remove any trace of the politics of the betrayer Barack Obama (LaRouche’s followers have compared Obama to Hitler, but were staunch supporters of John Kerry); in fact LaRouche has called for the impeachment of Obama.- Dismiss and end the propaganda for the fraudulent idea of global warming (a conspiracy).- Drawing on the resources of the already existing (worldwide) LaRouche Youth Movement to do, well, whatever youth movements do? (It really exists, btw, and bears all the hallmarks of a cult; the spokesperson is one Barbara Boyd and it seems to be led by Lakesha “Kesha” Rogers, a certified nutcase.

LaRouche was originally a Trotskyist (under the name Lyn Marcus), instigating several labor strikes among students during his leadership of the sectarian leftist National Caucus of Labor Committees (LaRouche promoted the use of physical violence, however, against his competitors in the Communist Party). He established relations to the extreme right – e.g. Willis Carto’s Liberty Lobby – during Reagan (particular over drug policy and staunch opposition to environmentalism). He eventually turned from (some semblance of confused) Marxism to anti-Semitism. This quote, from 1978, is, uh, interesting: “America must be cleansed for its righteous war by the immediate elimination of the Nazi Jewish Lobby and other British agents from the councils of government, industry, and labor" (more quotes here).

He also erected a quite wide-ranging intelligence network and a surprisingly large international organization (or somewhat militia like cult) with ties to a frighteningly many questionable regimes, including South Africa’s apartheid regime and Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party. He also achieved a certain success in the 80s, before being imprisoned for tax evasion (sharing a cell with Jim Bakker). LaRouche’s followers are known to be among the most persistent at comparing Obama to Hitler. They’re still running a variety of fronts and publications (including the crackpot science cesspool “21st century Science and Technology”, known in particular for its rabid and completely unscientific papers arguing (ranting) against global warming). This one is worth a visit.

More here. This one seems to have gone a little over the top, however.

Diagnosis: Schizophrenic, megalomaniac raving lunatic who seems to wish to establish a socially conservative, fiscally socialist political system based on cult-like worship of the strong man (himself). That political system has been tried before. Fortunately LaRouche doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of implementing it in the US, despite the fact that he has a frighteningly large number of followers.

2 comments:

LaRouche is a cult leader and clearly delusional but he is not schizophrenic. Schizophrenia is a pretty well defined group of psychoses, none of which he appears to have. He would be far less functioning, and thus less dangerous, were he schizophrenic.

For those interested in the LaRouche group's origins in SDS and broader New Left, please see How It All Began: The Origins and History of the National Caucus of Labor Committees in New York and Philadelphia (1966-1971) available at http://laroucheplanet.info/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Library.HIABcover